The Garden of Forking Paths

Boomkat Product Review:

Drone is a beautiful thing I'll say that for sure, but it is, contrary to popular belief, incredibly difficult to get right. Countless releases pass through my fingers every week which try desperately to either incorporate drone elements or to master the genre itself - and countless fail, 'The Garden of Forking Paths', however, is a glorious exception. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma is no newcomer to the scene, having cut his teeth as a founder member of post-rock/psychedelic stalwarts Tarentel he has recently set himself up as tastemaker and label boss with Root Strata and now he shows he can go it alone with this, his debut solo full-legnth album. Making the decision to shy away from laptop use was the first good move Jefre made, instead of using the crystal clear sound of 32-bit recording we're all so used to, Jefre dug out his reel-to-reel tape machine and microcassette recorders and decided to experiment with alternative recording methods. Taking control of the trusty guitar and also experimenting with harmonium, music box, gongs and cymbals among other intricate small instruments, Jefre proceeds to conjure up gorgeous, haunting sheets of droning harmonic sound. As the symphonies shift slowly you are drawn into the ambience and the glorious winds of tape hiss and wavering strings it is comparable to the best of early Stars of the Lid or Andrew Chalk, yet what Jefre adds is a distinct personality and a feeling of intimacy which is unavoidably his own. Maybe it's the feeling that these twelve tracks were created in a singular environment, sometimes being recorded even on location in the Marin Headlands just north of San Francisco, that you get sucked into this delicate, shimmering world. 'Drone' albums, if you can call this such, rarely reach the heights of 'The Garden of Forking Paths', and Spekk have again pulled out a real winner and packaged it fittingly well. Easily one of my highlights of the year so far and without a doubt something for Type, Kranky and Miasmah fans - a huge recommendation.

Boomkat Product Review:

Drone is a beautiful thing I'll say that for sure, but it is, contrary to popular belief, incredibly difficult to get right. Countless releases pass through my fingers every week which try desperately to either incorporate drone elements or to master the genre itself - and countless fail, 'The Garden of Forking Paths', however, is a glorious exception. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma is no newcomer to the scene, having cut his teeth as a founder member of post-rock/psychedelic stalwarts Tarentel he has recently set himself up as tastemaker and label boss with Root Strata and now he shows he can go it alone with this, his debut solo full-legnth album. Making the decision to shy away from laptop use was the first good move Jefre made, instead of using the crystal clear sound of 32-bit recording we're all so used to, Jefre dug out his reel-to-reel tape machine and microcassette recorders and decided to experiment with alternative recording methods. Taking control of the trusty guitar and also experimenting with harmonium, music box, gongs and cymbals among other intricate small instruments, Jefre proceeds to conjure up gorgeous, haunting sheets of droning harmonic sound. As the symphonies shift slowly you are drawn into the ambience and the glorious winds of tape hiss and wavering strings it is comparable to the best of early Stars of the Lid or Andrew Chalk, yet what Jefre adds is a distinct personality and a feeling of intimacy which is unavoidably his own. Maybe it's the feeling that these twelve tracks were created in a singular environment, sometimes being recorded even on location in the Marin Headlands just north of San Francisco, that you get sucked into this delicate, shimmering world. 'Drone' albums, if you can call this such, rarely reach the heights of 'The Garden of Forking Paths', and Spekk have again pulled out a real winner and packaged it fittingly well. Easily one of my highlights of the year so far and without a doubt something for Type, Kranky and Miasmah fans - a huge recommendation.

Boomkat Product Review:

Drone is a beautiful thing I'll say that for sure, but it is, contrary to popular belief, incredibly difficult to get right. Countless releases pass through my fingers every week which try desperately to either incorporate drone elements or to master the genre itself - and countless fail, 'The Garden of Forking Paths', however, is a glorious exception. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma is no newcomer to the scene, having cut his teeth as a founder member of post-rock/psychedelic stalwarts Tarentel he has recently set himself up as tastemaker and label boss with Root Strata and now he shows he can go it alone with this, his debut solo full-legnth album. Making the decision to shy away from laptop use was the first good move Jefre made, instead of using the crystal clear sound of 32-bit recording we're all so used to, Jefre dug out his reel-to-reel tape machine and microcassette recorders and decided to experiment with alternative recording methods. Taking control of the trusty guitar and also experimenting with harmonium, music box, gongs and cymbals among other intricate small instruments, Jefre proceeds to conjure up gorgeous, haunting sheets of droning harmonic sound. As the symphonies shift slowly you are drawn into the ambience and the glorious winds of tape hiss and wavering strings it is comparable to the best of early Stars of the Lid or Andrew Chalk, yet what Jefre adds is a distinct personality and a feeling of intimacy which is unavoidably his own. Maybe it's the feeling that these twelve tracks were created in a singular environment, sometimes being recorded even on location in the Marin Headlands just north of San Francisco, that you get sucked into this delicate, shimmering world. 'Drone' albums, if you can call this such, rarely reach the heights of 'The Garden of Forking Paths', and Spekk have again pulled out a real winner and packaged it fittingly well. Easily one of my highlights of the year so far and without a doubt something for Type, Kranky and Miasmah fans - a huge recommendation.

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Estimated Shipping Dates

Estimated shipping dates are accurate to the best of our
knowledge, based on the latest stock information made available
to us from the supplier. Available items should ship to you within
the time-frame indicated. If there are any unforeseen issues with
availability we will notify you immediately.

Shipping FAQs

Free Shipping: We offer free postage on orders over
£50.00 to the UK sent via Royal Mail.*

*To qualify for free postage the order must be sent as one package.
Therefore, all items must be in stock or you should be happy to wait
until all items become available to ship so they can be sent as one
package. Downloads and Gift Vouchers do not count towards free
shipping. Please note that Pre-Orders do not count towards free
shipping as their release dates are liable to fluctuate.

Stock Status

If your order contains items that have different estimated
shipping dates (for example, ‘available to pre-order’, ‘in stock’,
‘available to ship in 1-3 days’) you will be given an option either
to wait for everything to become available to ship in one package,
or to ship each item as soon as it becomes available. Stock arrives
at the office throughout the day so the stock status of items on the
website can change several times a day.

Important Note: all items that are not currently displaying as
In Stock need to be ordered in from our suppliers and the estimated
shipping dates are only an indication of when we expect those items
to come into stock. If there are any unforeseen issues with
availability we will notify you immediately.

Premium Packaging

At checkout you are able to select a premium packaging option
for a fee of £1.50. We pack all of our orders using appropriate
packaging, however when you pick this option we use a wider
cruciform offering additional protection if you have a
particularly heavy-handed postman.

UK and International Shipping Options

We offer two services:

1. First Class Royal Mail - for UK and for International
orders: The package will be delivered by your national postal service.

Royal Mail sets limits on the weight of packages, so if the order
becomes too heavy to ship in one package the order will be split
into two or more packages. The packages will be marked accordingly,
for example, if an order has to be sent over two packages the packages
would be labelled ‘1 of 2’ and ‘2 of 2’.

2. Parcelforce tracked courier service:

This comprises a flat box fee for UK (and some European countries),
and a sliding scale based on weight for other countries. Parcelforce
is a Monday - Friday service. Packages sent via Parcelforce can be
tracked here:
http://www.parcelforce.com/track-trace

Parcelforce can only ship to PO boxes in certain countries,
details can be found once you have made your country selection
at checkout.

Once you have added items to your crate you can select your
country and choose either to send everything in one package or
to ship as soon as the items become available. At this point the
total given is a guide to the cost and more shipping configurations
are available once you have logged in and proceeded to checkout.
At the checkout you will still be able to add or take away items
from the crate and change/compare your shipping options.

Pre-orders are treated as separate packages to items that are
either in stock or available to order. If pre-orders share the
same release date then they can be ordered and shipped together.
However pre-order release dates are liable to change, if you have
ordered two pre-orders with the same date to ship together and
then one release date gets pushed back, we will ship the available
pre-order straight away and the second pre-order as soon as it
becomes available with no extra shipping charge.

If you choose to ship your order across more than one package you
can select the Royal Mail service for one package and Parcelforce
courier for the other.

Exceptions:

* if an individual item weighs more than 2kg and you are outside
of the UK the package must be sent via courier as Royal Mail sets
a 2kg limit on packages.

* Royal Mail covers postage all countries, however Parcelforce is
not available in every country.

Missing Packages

If an order does not arrive, we can issue a replacement package.
In the UK we consider a package to be missing after 15 working
days. Most international orders are considered missing after 25
working days with the exception of France, South America and Africa
- packages to these destinations are considered missing after 60
working days. Before we can issue a replacement, customers must
have checked with their local depot/sorting office to see if their
package is awaiting pick up. If we think there is an issue with
the shipping address, or that packages are being stolen in the
post, we reserve the right to refuse future orders to these
addresses.

Insurance

We automatically add an insurance supplement to orders over £30.
Orders between £30 - £49.99 are charged a 60p insurance supplement.
Orders over £50 are charged a £3 insurance supplement.

Returned Packages

If a package is returned to us because of an incomplete address,
or because it was not collected from a local depot, we will have to
charge you again in order to re-send it. We will get in touch with
you before any package is re-sent.

Delivery Times

The delivery times below are estimates. A lot depends on the
efficiency of your local post service.

Royal Mail:

UK (inc. Northern Ireland): 1 - 2 working days
Western Europe: 3 - 5 working days
Eastern Europe: 5 - 12 working days
Rest of World: 5 - 10 working days

Courier:

UK (inc. Northern Ireland): 1 working day except for highlands
of Scotland and parts of Scotland, please get in touch for
further information.

Western Europe: 2-3 working days for most countries but takes
longer shipping to Finland, Greece, Italy, Norway, Portugal and Sweden.

Eastern Europe: 3-6 working days for most countries but can take up
to 7 days for other countries, please get in touch for further
information.

Rest of World: 2-7 working days for most countries, please get in
touch for further information

Please note shipping times can vary within a country depending
on the area - for further information please get in touch.

Please note that the estimated shipping times above can be
affected by circumstances beyond our control such as bad
weather, delays at customs, busy times of year etc.

Contact Us

If you require further information or assistance then
please contact us.

Stock Status

Physical Products have different types of stock availability, for example:

In Stock (Ready to ship)
Pre-Order with estimated shipping dates
Available to Order (Estimated shipping between 1-3 working days)
Available to Order (Estimated shipping between 3-7 working days)
Available to Order (Estimated shipping between 7-14 working days)

If your order contains items that have different estimated shipping
dates you will be given an option either to wait for everything to
become available to ship in one package, or to ship each item as soon
as it becomes available. Stock arrives at the office throughout the
day so the stock status of items on the website can change several
times a day.

Important Note: all items that are not currently displaying as In Stock
need to be ordered in from our suppliers and the estimated shipping
dates are only an indication of when we expect those items to come
into stock. If there are any unforeseen issues with availability we
will notify you immediately.

Insurance

Premium Packaging

At checkout you are able to select a
premium packaging
option for a fee of £1.50. We pack all of our orders
using appropriate packaging, however when you pick this
option we use a wider cruciform offering additional
protection if you have a particularly heavy-handed postman.